BEIJING DANCE THEATER

Onto a dark and empty stage, a single dancer enters from stage right to the quiet hum of white noise. The single act of marking his path begins the action of this piece, and a single streamer falls, vertically dividing the stage, as the industrial cry of the original music by Wu Jun and Liu Bo begins. Crossing traces the struggles of the individual dancers to mark the emptiness, and evolves as simple white horizontal and vertical streamers fill and reconfigure the space. Asymmetrical in form, the piece progresses as solos, duets and trios fill the evolving set, pitting lyrical movement against the stark realities of the space and sound.

Artistic Director and choreographer of French dance troupe Compagnie Rêvolution, Anthony Egéa returned to China after the success of his work Urban Ballet presented at the Festival Croisements 2010, and engaged himself into an extraordinary project perfectly integrating the movements of ballet, hip hop and Tai Chi into his choreography.

He started out by visiting Beijing, and eventually enveloped all the stimulation he had had from both his experience during his journey in China and his knowledge of Chinese culture from books and movies into this piece of contemporary ballet. This time, he and the young dancers of Beijing Dance Theater have set out to pursue their innermost sensibilities with their vast imagination through the movements of their bodies.

Ballet and hip pop are two opposite elements like yin and yang, which can be embedded and transformed into one another. Tai Chi will be the third element to tolerate the contradiction, and therefore represents the balance between yin and yang. Through his imagination, the choreographer created an exotic space where the oriental and occidental culture and morality concur, where Chinese traditional opera, Tai Chi, temples and gods are perfectly woven into the mysterious and supernatural spiritual world. Under his magic stick of the ever-changing body language, this extraordinary piece will be accompanied by the eerie music composed by French musician Franck II Louise and the stage space created by Chinese Artists – well-known set designer Gong Xun and Chinese American lighting designer Zhang Nan.

This work is part of the mix bill : MIDDLE I HARVEST

Haze came into being as a creative response to the economic and environmental crises of early 2009. On a bare stage covered in thick sponge mats, the dancers strive to keep their footing in time with the brooding music contemporary sacred music of Gorecki , later giving way the electronica of Biosphere.

The bare stage, challenging surface, and ponderous music frame the movements of the dancers, as they stumble, roll, fall, crawl and collapse on the uncertain terrain. The piece proceeds as a metaphor that links the environmental haze and pollution with the spiritual confusion involved in a time of social or individual crisis.

The piece explores the spiritual struggle of finding one's way through darkness. Haze will premiere on May 5, 2009, at the Tianqiao Theater, Beijing.

This piece brings together the most representative short works of Ms. Wang Yuanyuan over the past decade, bringing into relief the creative and emotional arc of that time. Together they describe an artistic curve with surprising consistency : disparate themes coalesce through the gravity of strong emotion ; the work leads the audience to experience the hidden but unclouded essence of life, its ceaseless energy and emotional core.

This work is part of the mix bill : MIDDLE I HARVEST